Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Mikey Taylor: Why True Empire Builders Plan for the Long-term - 079

Episode Date: December 26, 2018

Whether you recognize Mikey Taylor as a professional skateboarder or successful serial entrepreneur, here’s the most important thing you need to know about him: by his own admission, he’s just a guy who was too lazy to get a real job and instead built an empire by following his passions. Watch or listen to discover how you can do the same when you embrace speed of implementation. “You can feel someone’s energy -- how they are in person -- through Instagram.” - Bedros Keuilian Here’s what you’ll discover: 5:17 - How the desire to fit in and enjoy life led to a career in professional skating 7:12 - What Mikey did to clinch his first three sponsorships 12:14 - How to adopt the entrepreneurial mindset of an 18-year-old “idea incubator” 27:23 - How to use branding, marketing, and story-telling to rise to the top in a competitive industry 36:05 - Why Commune Capital is trying to make a difference for skateboarders, athletes, and other professionals “Looking back, I can’t believe I ended up getting sponsors by sending out a VHS tape of me skating. That didn’t happen back then.” – Mikey Taylor Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @mikeytaylor Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/ Make sure to review us on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theempireshow

you're always going to have problems no matter what. If it's going good or bad, there's problems. Your idea and path and plan, it's never what it's supposed to be. It's always kind of derails into other things, and you're forced having to figure out new solutions to these problems, right? Hey, friends, welcome to another episode of the Empire Podcast. This is an inside look, and today we've got a very special guest. His name is Mike Taylor, and he was not only a professional skater

who made his money, obviously skating as an athlete, but he segued into being an entrepreneur, I would say an influencer, a person who makes tremendous impact. And of course, now he's doing something very special for the industry that he came from. So let's welcome Mikey. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming out, man. Yeah, of course. So, dude, you've got a unique thing.

First of all, we should talk about the connections of how we met because social media, they used to say that everyone's like, what do they call it, six degrees of separation, right? You're six degrees separated from anyone you want to meet. Yeah. I believe Instagram, Facebook, social media has probably brought that down to one, maybe two degrees. For sure. And the degree of separation between us was our friend Randall Pitch, Lift It. And you started your podcast about four months ago.

And Randall was on it, right? He reached out to you. How did you guys connect? I know you guys both skate, but how did you guys connect? Okay, so we were starting a podcast and we were trying to have, you know, between five and seven interviews. finished before we launched. And we wanted to have people with following to help kind of promote the early stage. So we were just reaching out to people. Not Randall. Randall wasn't even on my radar. And, but I knew of him. I knew he was because there was another, there was a kid, Nick Dompeer,

those pro skateboarder, ended up getting into fitness and ended up being an ambassador for live fit at a point in time. Got it. So we knew Randall just through Nick. Yeah. And this this guy, Omar, a friend of ours, leads me a text. I can get Randall pitch on your on your podcast. And I was like, sweet, how? Like, he's like, I'm going to connect you. So he connects me. I email him like, hey, dude, I heard you want to be on the podcast. That'd be amazing. And he goes, dude, I totally know who you are. I grew up skating. He listed all these people he did. He sent me a video of him skating. Like, he fully skateboards. So it was like just turned into like, it started with a podcast and we became like really good friends from it. And you were

like one of the first people he brought up to me. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. And I'm guessing that's how we've connected since. Yeah, I followed you. Basically what happened. He was at one of your masterminds. Yeah, that's right. And I saw him the next day and he's like, dude, you've got to follow Bedros. He is the real, hyped you up, right?

I'm like, I'm going to follow him. So I followed you. And then I must have left a comment or something and then you ended up DMing me. Yeah. That's how it lives. This is going to sound goofy. And I'm not saying this to blow smoke up your ass because I'm the last guy to ever edify anyone if they don't deserve it or need it.

But I don't know how it is, but you can feel someone's energy, like how they are in real person. through Instagram. Yeah. Not so much on any other platform. I agree. But the moment I started following you, like I saw her comment, I was like, holy hell, wow, this guy seems pretty cool. I started following you.

Like, I could feel your passion, your desire to help your industry. Like, I could feel your authenticity. It was the weirdest thing. And, you know, we were talking about Grant Cardone earlier. You went and did his show. I did Power Players as well. And you said, hey, what did you think about him? I said, well, Grant's a nut.

Like, he's a nut. Like, he should be a human cartoon character. And that's what I love about him. I adore him for that because every minute he was angling me to sell me on something, either selling me on the fact that I said this when I didn't or impact our income or he wanted me to buy a big giant section of his stadium for 10x. Yeah, yeah. Dude, I didn't tell you.

He was trying to sell me 2,500 seats of the stadium, but he's got a whole process where then if I filled it up and then we would make money. That's what I love about Grant. Like, what you see is what you get. And you can feel that energy from him. And so anyway, with you, I guess. got that authentic energy. I was like, I want to get to know this guy better. So here we are. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. And so you're an athlete and an artist, as I see it.

And I was just telling you, yesterday I put up a post where three people back-to-back reached out to me that they have all this following. One guy was a power lifter. One person was a bodybuilder. The next person was like a bikini competitor. And all of them have a skill that if they created a digital how-to course, they could monetize. But they were like, I don't have two nickels to rub against each other. What do I do? Yeah. And one of them was like, hey, you know, if you're going to go to Olympia this weekend, we can take a picture together and I can shout you out. It's like, I don't need your fucking shout out. What I need you to do is have money. Be stable. We have security. And so here you are, someone who comes from the athletic background, someone who is somewhat of an artist, and you made that amazing transition. So first of all, tell us how you got into professional skating. So it was a fluke. It really was. I had a friend who was cool. And I saw him with a skateboard and I just wanted to fit in. So I got a skateboard too. What year was that? Oh, this was, I was 13. So this was probably 96. And you're 36 now? 36 now? Yeah, I was quick. And so I just picked it up. And it was the first time, you know, like prior to that, I would get into like all these things and like kind of get in obsessively, but they wouldn't last long, right? If I like got into biosephi.

It was like bike for life. If it was hockey, it was hockey for life, right? But it was only for like a three, four month period. Skateboarding was the first thing that took, you know, a hold of me like the others did, but it just never wore out. Right, I think because it was so hard and technical that it just took me 20 years to figure it out. But it really just started as a very like natural,

just enjoyment and just wanting to get better at it. But I never had the idea of wanting to go pro. And a lot of that was due to how small the skate industry was. there was no, there was no real pros, like there were, but you couldn't really have a real career in it. Yeah. So I was just doing it to the point of, you know, I'm 13, 14, 15, 16, you know, my mom starts having the conversation. It was time to get a job, right? And like, I wasn't ready to work.

I wanted to keep skating. Sure. You know, so I like came up. Now, because you enjoyed skating or, hey, I think there's actually an opportunity for me to make money with this. The money side was not even there yet, right? I enjoyed it so much and it had such a grasp on me that I just didn't, I wasn't ready to stop. Right. And so, you know, she came up the, you got to get a job. And then I like put together this massive plan of like, this master plan. If I can get sponsored, right, I'll get free clothes, free shoes, free skateboards and maybe have a little bit left over to sell that could pay for food. I'm good. What else is a young man need? And I think she thought it was so crazy that she was like, okay, fine, go ahead. Right. And that was like the start of me trying to get sponsor. Still didn't want to go pro or didn't think that was a reality. I just didn't want to work at this time. At this time. At the time.

time. So I made 40 videotapes of me skating, one video, but made 40 copies of it, look through the magazines to find addresses and sent all these tapes out of me skating to sponsors or companies. And I didn't get one call back, right? So I was like, shit, I guess I needed to be better, right? So I did a whole new video, spent the next four or five months filming a new video, sent another 40 out and I got three calls. I just want to picture this. So is it you and your friends kind of doing this hodgepodge together? Is it all you trying to skate? So there was One kid, so my group, there was about six of us who skated, and they were all really good, and three of the guys were sponsored already. And then we had one kid in town that filmed everybody.

He was like the local filmer, right? So I convinced him to film me, and I was the worst out of the group, right? So you can imagine me telling the one filmer who has all these guys to film, I need you to film me. It was a, you know, it was a battle. But whatever, we ended up getting it done. And then I got three sponsors from that, and that was kind of the, okay, wow, like I have sponsors now, still didn't want to go pro. I didn't think that was an idea until I was time to graduate. Can you tell us who those three sponsors were?

Yeah, my first three sponsors were, it was Venture Trucks, which is the truck company, Duth's Shoes, and then Maple Skateboards. Those are three ones, and then drawers clothing. Are they still around now? Santa, oh no, at this time. So Maple's gone, Duff's gone, Venture is still here. Venture trucks is the only one. Okay.

All of them gone. Gotcha. Yeah. That's crazy. So did they just believe in you? Like, how did this happen? Or were you just so persistent? You sold them on it?

No, that's what's so weird. Like, looking back, right, I can't believe I ended up getting sponsors by sending out a VHS tape of me skating, right? That didn't happen back then. It was really rare. And I don't know. I can't explain it, man. I think it was one of those things that were like, I don't know why they saw something in me. They just, for whatever reason, did, and I got a call back.

That's nice. Yeah, I think about all the time. How I got in, I'm still blown away by it. Okay. But would you say that you were entrepreneurial from the get-go? because I just didn't know I was, right? I remember the point of me hitting me that I was. But up until that point, I had no idea, right? Maybe you could argue like, yeah, you were this determined. All of a sudden, you're going to film these videos, you're going to send them out,

you're going to get sponsored. It wasn't. The only thing I was paying attention to do was new tricks to do and basically finding new spots. That was all. So you were obsessed and you didn't want to get a job. Yes. That's two things. Okay, seriously, no joke. It's just you and me, friend to friend. I believe that is the definition of an entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs are lazy, inherently lazy. But they're obsessed with some kind of a passion or some kind of a project, collecting cars, whatever it is. Airplanes, experiences, flying all over the world, whatever it is. And so they spend a lot of their time trying to figure out how to get other people to fund their life so that they could do what they want. In the process, not realizing that they first

have to build the foundation. And so we literally sell our life, a portion of our life, to build a foundation that's going to fund us. But I'm that guy, and I know a lot of people like that. And when I hear your story, it's like, you were like, hey, mom, I don't want to go get a job. I think I can get paid doing this. Yeah. And I mean, you got some guy. You were the worst skater of the bunch.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you said that. I was, yeah. Yeah. And so you got the guy who's filming everyone else convincing him, already convincing him to film you. And then you dubbed the tape 39 times over. Yeah.

send it out, get no response, hey, let's do it over again until you get a response. That's entrepreneurship to the core, and I love that because most people think, and there's plenty of people who go and become entrepreneurs because they have this greater purpose, and we develop our purpose as we go, I believe,

but I love that story because I saw the spark of entrepreneurship right away in you as you're telling this story. So how long were you a professional skater? Like, what does a professional skater's life look like? So I wasn't pro yet, right? It was just getting free stuff. That for us is called flow. I was getting flowed by sponsors, right?

My senior year is when I started, I got my first ad in a magazine, and one of my sponsors asked me to go to Europe for that summer. So I was going to graduate, then go to Europe. But the conversation changed where, you know, at 16, it was you need to get a job at 18 when I graduated as where are we going to school, right? And back then, and I know you know this,

back then the message was if you don't go to college, you have no shot to even get in the door to have somewhat of a financial, stable career. Right. Right. So this was a huge conversation and concern for my parents, right? And even for myself, like I think I always had an idea of what my life would look like. And part of me thought that by doing this, I was going to be letting go of that life, right? So our original plan was I was just going to do it two years, right? That was like what I told my parents, even though I could have done it without my parents' blessing, whatever,

I wanted their blessing, right? And so that was a conversation. I'm going to do it for two years, but I have to get these companies to pay me. Right. I can't just do it for free. So I started calling my sponsors and I was like, hey, look, I have to go to college. The only way I can postpone this is if I make a little money.

I don't need a ton right now. I just have to make some money, right? And I had two out of the, at this time I think it was four. Two out of the four start paying me. Okay, let's stop right there because you're giving such great lessons for everyone watching and listening to this because we've got two different categories

of entrepreneurs here. Really three. The third category, they're like, say, 5% of our watchers, viewers and listeners. But the first category is the idea incubators. They've got this idea. They're incubating it. They're still trying to figure out, should I step off the cliff,

meaning quit my job, drop out of school, take out the loan, the idea incubators. And then you've got the people who are, all right, hey, I'm making a living, but I could very well go get a day job and make the same amount of money and work less. Yeah. Right? And they're trying to break into the empire builders.

And that 5% is the empire builders. People that were running multiple seven figure, eight figure, we got nine figure listeners. But the idea incubators need to understand this, that when they're doing, they weren't offering you the money, you put the call out to your four sponsors. And you're like, I need money. And two of the four said, what? I'll give it to you? Two of them said, okay, the other two said they couldn't. And how do you negotiate this? Once they say, okay, do they go,

here's what we're offering you? Do you say, here's what I want? I mean, dude, at this point, I was 18, right? There was no, this was the first time I ever done this. There was no negotiation. It was, one sponsor said, they'll give me 500 bucks a month. The other one said 300. I said, boom, Let's do this. Okay, got it. But you took the risk and you made the calls. Yeah. Well, I had to, and it was like I, and I looked at as, even though part of me kind of truly felt like I was not going to go to college right then and there, I used that as basically my leverage to just say, hey, it's this or that.

Yeah. Right. And at that time, though, skating was small. Like for an 18-year-old kid to make $1,000 a month, was pretty big, right? And so kind of that first year I started traveling, loving life. It was incredible. And then the following year is when the skate industry kind of exploded, right? And that second year is when I went from, you know, making a thousand bucks a month and making

more than my parents now, right? I'm 20 years old. Now, what year was this now? This is 2001? 2001, you're 20 years old, you're traveling the world, making more than your parents. What does life look like to you in that moment? Very similar to what it looked like when I was 18. No kidding.

Hey, I'm just still skating, having a good time with my buds. Yeah, yeah. All of that except for when I turned to you. I was 20 at this point, that's when just the, I think, idea that I could actually do something here hit. But my lifestyle remained pretty similar for the next, I think, six, seven, eight years. Got it. You know, it just now became okay. I can be a pro skateboarder.

There's something to do here. But that concern of what happens after never went away. That, I think, was the driving factor, even where I'm at right now, is being so scared about what happened after skating. And I think me making that like original, okay, I'm going to be giving, you know, letting go of this idea of what my life could be by doing this. And then it was like, wait, maybe I'm not. But if I don't play my cards right, I'll have no shot, you know. And back then there was no social media, right? So like when I looked at pros who were doing it before me, no one knew what happened to them when they disappeared, right?

When their career ended, they just weren't in the magazines anymore. Yeah. So I always wondered like, where did they go? How much money they make? Were they smart? What are they doing that? They just gone, right? which really, I think, built into that fear side of me going,

so when your career is over, you really just disappear in obscurity. Let's talk about that for a moment. We're going to go down this rabbit hole. Influencers, ambassadors, athletes who get sponsorship, right? Most don't realize bodybuilders, powerlifters, bikini competitors. You name it. Anyone who's got any kind of following don't realize that there's, something, what's going to happen after this?

Like, this run is going to stop? How is a young man in his 20s do you have so much forethought to go, this run is going to stop? I don't know. I honestly don't know. I look back, it might have been a combination of my parents, maybe those early conversations of what are you going to do. I have no idea.

I know I was very lucky to have it. It was that mixed with, there is a big component, actually. When I started making significant money, I mean, it was good money. It wasn't outrageous. It was good money. My dad could, he didn't understand what I was doing, right?

He was like, wait, you're not competing. You're filming in videos and you're making this much money, right? So he walked me into his CFP at the time, still to this day, actually. Tell our friends what a CFP is. A certified financial planner. So they basically help set up your finances, future investments, so on, so forth. So he brings me into this guy's office, right? Sits down.

The guy's looking at me. He's like, so what are you doing? and I was like, I'm skateboarding, you know, and he's like, what does that mean? And I'm like trying to explain to him about the industry and he goes, okay, look, you are so different than my clients, right? My clients have the, you know, typical, they're going to work till they're 65, can't wait to retire, right? You're in a position where like, you don't want to retire, but you have to, and it's going to be somewhere around. At this time, we thought it'd be 10 years, right? So he was like, look, we need to put together, you know, a very customized strategy for you, and I'm going to

rely on you to help me understand what it's going to look like. And I think that, you know, me being 19, 20 years old with him having to put together the strategy for myself really forced me to have an understanding of, I think, money, how it works, and what it really means by me being a pro skateboarder. That there is a run rate to this and the runway is going to run out. Exactly. And the thing he told me and, you know, he was like, look, this might be the most money you ever make. Right. I'm 20 years old. This way. My talent comes from, my talent comes from riding a skateboard. Right? There's no other. I can't just like leave this and go get, you know what I'm saying? So he was like, look, if this is the most money you ever make, we need to be very strategic with basically our plan was we're going to put you on a very strict budget and I'm going to maximize the amount that you can invest into things that will give you passive income, right? And that was like our original strategy. And I think that conversation.

What a great lesson for you. Yeah. So I think it was that mixed with like the idea of what my life could be, the not seeing any of the pros ahead of me really. step away smoothly and it all just kind of created this. You better figure this shit out. Wow, good for you. All right, so let's now jump fast forward to the day that Mike retires. Okay, that wasn't that long ago. Really? Yeah, so you had a much longer run than you thought.

Yeah, I ended up basically having a 15-year run. How does that happen? Because it's not typical in your industry. No, it's not. Do you know who Rob Dierdick is? Yes. So Rob Dierdick was- I know of him.

I don't know him. Bob was one of the first pros I met, was he owned the company that turned me pro. Okay. He actually was a huge influence in my life in the skate world, right? And so I'm 18 or 19. I go pro for his company, and he tells me, look, the name of this game is longevity. And basically writes out this whole plan of what not to do so that you can have a long career. Just give me a list of a couple things.

He said not to do so he can have a long career, because I'm sure it applies to being an entrepreneur. Don't burn bridges was like one of the first things he ever told me. Don't burn bridges. This is an interesting one. Be, have an idea of a 10-year window, not a two-year window, and try and be consistent with putting out content and growing the whole 10 years instead of jumping in, making a huge splash. And then now you don't have another eight years to run, right? It really, when you broke it all down, look like this. Yes.

Don't look like this. Yes. Right? And I think I just, that was kind of the model. Two of the best lessons any entrepreneur can take. Don't burn bridges. Yeah. And go for, you know, I always say invest in the decade.

Yeah. Not in the next 10 days. Yeah. Everyone wants, in 10 days, I want to be a millionaire. In the decade, you can be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's this, right. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Good Lord. All right. So you're 36.

So you're 34 when you're retired. Yeah. What does retirement look like? Is it an official announcement? No. Like, what happened? So it varies, right? Some guys have like an actual, like, I'm retiring.

Yeah. Not a lot. Mine was, I. had surgery on my leg December of 2015. Was that a byproduct of skating? Yeah, I had a tore a ligament and where it was like a partial tear, but where it connected, it pulled the bone with it. So I skated on it for a year, right?

But I was, you know, I'm 33 at this point. Right. And that's, so for skateboarding, our, we don't know our future, right? We don't know if it's going to be 10 years or two years, right? But we get contracts with sponsors and let's say it's a four-year run. we know we're a pro skateboarder for four years, right? That was my life for 15 years. Okay. So at this point, when I originally hurt my leg, I had three years left on my shoe deal. And that was, that's your significant money, right? So I was like, you know what? Can I just skate on this for

three years and just, you know, run it out or should I fix it? Right? So I skated on it for a year, by far the worst year of my life skateboarding. It was terrible. And then finally I'm like, you know what? I'm going to fix it. I'm going to be out nine months. And then I'm just going to enjoy the next year and a half. And I actually thought I might get a contract after that. But I was kind of like, you know what, this could be the end. Let's just enjoy it, right? Have surgery December. I get a call February from my shoe sponsor. Hey, we found a clause in your contract and we are going to terminate on it. I don't even think they gave me a thank you. Your last check will be in 30 days. And so I can't skate. I'm on the couch surgery overnight.

That's how my... There's your retirement. Yeah. All right. So what happens now? Because again, the entrepreneurial run. Hey man, Facebook's Facebook ads are working for me. Everyone's buying my course or my product or my service or my membership. And then all of a sudden, the algorithm changes or two airplanes hit the World Trade Center. Something happens. The bubble bursts. Call the outcome of disaster, whatever it is. Something happens and then, oh shit. Yeah. Now, here you are, recovering from a surgery. You get a phone call. It's over. Yeah. Yeah. What do you do? Do you start the pity party or did you start a solution? So I got to take you back a little bit further.

because my whole career was really planning for this day, right? When I had this meeting with, his name was Randy, and when we put together this original strategy, the vehicle that we chose to kind of help me through this transition was real estate, right? So I started at 20, I invested into a storage unit project, right? And so it was a development. I didn't see anything for like a year and a half,

got my first quarterly dividend, saw it, right, 21 going, whoa, this is cool. I didn't have to do anything for this. Next quarter got it again. So for our friends watching and listening, storage units, it gets developed. Someone starts selling the individual storage units. There's a monthly recurring fee. Now you're getting cash flow. That's what that dividend is. Yeah, so I was getting cash flow on it. And you're like, holy hell, this is pretty cool. I thought it was a trick at first, right? I was like, yo, okay, this is cool. I didn't think it was real, right? Second one came and I'm like, okay, it was the third one where I was like, that was my aha moment. Holy shit. And was each one incrementally

increasing? Each quarter it wouldn't. Yearly it would by a little bit. The first few quarters was pretty much the same. But when I got that third one, it was like for me, okay, this comes every single quarter. I don't do anything and this comes. This is how I get through this transition. I get hurt. I just need this number to get bigger. Right? So I went on a very kind of heavy run on investing into opportunities like this for the last, it's been about 13 years. Yeah. Right. Through that journey, you know, I was 26 at this point, 25, I got my first shoe with DVS, which is the shoe company. I'm my own signature model.

And it was my introduction to the business side of skating. The better I market this thing, the more it sells, the more money I make, right? And I really enjoyed that side of it. And I put together this whole plan. I called the president of the company. I went into his office, right? And I'm like, hey, I want to be involved beyond skateboarding. I want to help with the design.

I want to help put the team. team together. I want to help marketing, right? And I'm telling him this whole thing, right? And I sit, and he's looking at me, and he goes, why don't you just like go fucking skate? Why? Why do you want this? And I was like, yo, I just, I like it. And he was like, look, you're telling a skateboarding, just go skate, right? So I left the office, and that was when I realized that I needed more than just the skate aspect. And that is kind of what in turn, I think, started my entrepreneurial journey. And then started a bunch of little companies. And I think, I think, I think the first one I started was at 27.

So I started companies prior to retirement. The retirement is what just, that was what blindsided me. Sure. You know. So tell us about the company that you started that you ultimately sold. About that one? Yeah.

Okay, so at this point, I go to San Diego to film a skate video. Right? And this guy Josh, who was my partner, closest friend, he was a filmer. He was a surf filmmaker, and he wanted to make a skate video. And I was like, yo, I don't want to make a skate video with a surfilmer, right?

There's no way I'm doing that and he was so persistent. Is that just like a big no-no? Like I don't know the industry. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, skaters, really back then, only mess with skaters, right? And the way our videos look are very different than other videos. Okay. Right?

So like, that was just a no. And this guy was so persistent, right? I'm like, yo, fine. I'll go to San Diego with you, right? And then two days before we go, it's supposed to rain the whole time. Call him up, like, yo, we're canceling this. No, dude, it would be fun. I'm like, dude, we're not gonna get anything.

Let's just go. just go, so whatever, we drive down there, right? Drive down there. First time I met him in person, completely hit it off, right? Get down there and I get a call from another pro skateboard and he goes, hey, I want to start a sunglass company. Do you want to do it with me? Right. And I'm like talking to him about it, hang out the phone. I look at Josh. I'm like, I just got a weird call. What do you think about sunglasses? Right? And he was like, well, it's cool, but like sunglasses are all over our industry, right? Like, it'd be sick to do something new. Like, what can we do that's like, different. So we spent the next two hours talking about ideas, right? We're in a hotel room,

ended up like, yeah, let's just talk about it tomorrow. Turn off the light. I lay my head down, and he goes, like beer, like beer. I turn on the light. What? Beer? And he goes, yeah, we start talking about it, can't sleep. Next morning, abandon the film, drive home. Our friend Paul Rodriguez is the only person we know who invests into things, call Paul, yo, we're doing a craft brewery, meet us at Starbucks, met with him that morning, and that was like the birth You actually had beer experience, right? Because when I read about this, and then when you tell us who you actually sold this to. Yeah.

We didn't have any. I mean, you're just both laying there. Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow. And then he goes, beer. And you're like, what the fuck? And you guys get up. We can't talk about beer. Holy shit, no one's ever done that.

How could we do it? Woke up the next morning, called Paul. We're going to do this. And then spent the next year figuring out what that really meant. And was the idea like a beer that's niched to skaters? No. Our original idea was like to make a run at like Pacifico or Corona. nonsense like Mexican like blogger style right but we were kind of the original idea was we

were gonna have a brewery contract brewer beer and all we would worry about is marketing right and that is something that's very kind of specific to the skate world is we're the product is so competitive that we are I had a job because somebody believed in marketing right so from an early age we learn branding marketing storytelling and that is the deciding factor on why you buy vans over Nike or Adidas whatever right So we knew we had that mastered. We just didn't know shit about beer.

Right. So it was like, and we didn't know anything about capital raise. We didn't know. We didn't know. This was a, that was a crazy. So your friend Paul makes the investment. What happens next? How do you start your own brand of beer? So, so basically once we started making all these rounds, we started going to breweries,

talking about our idea, seeing if we could do a deal with them, looking at their structure. And no matter what we could, we would always have to do our own brewery. Right? The margin, there were no margins in it. Gotcha. Right. And we're sitting around, we're having this conversation. And Josh goes, dude, we're going to need three million bucks to do this. Right. And Paul, Paul goes, hey, man, scared money don't make money. Right? Let's go get this money. And we're like, let's do it. We're all fired up, right?

And then so when we did it, I called Randy, who was my CFP. I was like, yo, what do we need to do to do this? How do we do a capital raise? And so he really helped us on that early stage on putting everything together. And then we basically wrote down names on a list of who we thought we could get money from and went out and pitched it. Raised funds. Yeah. Yeah. That is nuts. And from the time that you pitched, now, well, okay, let me backtrack a second, because anytime someone's an entrepreneur, whether they're in the idea incubation period or they're in the, I have a business, but I'm pretty much treated like a job. I can make the same amount of money at a job. Or they're at the eight figure, nine figure space. There's going to be something that gets in your way,

you in those bottom two categories that was unexpected. Because you thought, you guys thought, hey, we can just go have some brewery make it, slap our own label on it, look at us, we've got a huge following. But then you realized, there's no fucking margins in this. So all of a sudden, the big gotcha is, a big hurdle that I call it, because everyone thinks, hey, this is a hurdle race and each hurdle is two and a half feet? I can do it. Well, what if I line up 20, two and a half feet hurdles? And then the 21st hurdle is 13 feet. Who's willing to go over it, under it, through it, around it, right? Not many. But you guys are like, fuck it. It's going to cost three million dollars. Yeah. Was there any hesitation, any pause, any, well, I guess our dream is shot?

There wasn't. Why? Honestly, I think we're naive a little bit and young and just, I think, just thought we could do it. And I will say this, dude, there is a thing about skateboarding, right? Skateboarding is so hard to do. And there's so much failure that we go through every day to, let's say, get a trick that I think for Paul and I are athletes especially we're so used to messing up so much to get something that we just learn that no matter what if you just work until you can't you're going to figure it out and do it right. Josh on the other hand even though he wasn't an athlete he is a very just driven determined it was just a perfect scenario of the type of people it took

to just go for something like that. No kidding. All right so you guys get the three million or so together how long before you build it out and sell it if it was fast it was really fast it took us it took us about a year from that San Diego trip to being able to raise money yeah I think it took us up four months to raise money at that point another six months to build it out and then we launched I believe it was March of 2012 no no it was May of 2012 and then we ended up selling three years later who did you sell to We sold a Miller course. Miller Coors.

Yeah. Yeah. You probably, can you disclose what you, how much you sold it for? Or give us a ballpark. Was it a handsome amount? Yes, it was. Yeah, it really was. Yeah.

For all of us, too, it was crazy. Yeah. And Josh, the kind of the, so Josh is, so prior to him filmmaking, he was managing athletes as well, right? And he is so incredibly talented at sell. He's like a grant almost, right? Yeah. Like, he could just sell you. And so when we.

ended up getting into negotiations and Josh was the CEO of it. Josh, we got negotiations. There were four companies that were putting in offers. And I remember me and Paul are like, dude, wait until they see Josh. And Josh got in there and just, he was just incredible at dry. Like we are, the original offer we got to the one we sold for was five times the amount. Good for you guys. Good for you guys.

So the lesson I've been trying to extract out of you and you did so well in teaching it to our, to our viewers and listeners is speed of implementation. in short of what two years from the time you guys like in the middle of the night like what beer to exiting was around two years? There was about three years from idea, three years of being open.

Got it. Three years of being open, four years from ideas. So speed of implementation, the fact that you guys thought of it, spent four months raising capital, the next six, eight months building out the brewery,

building out the marketing behind it and then of course getting the offer. Did you guys go and shop it around or did Miller Coors come to you and say, hey, No, there's actually a first beverage group approached us and said, hey, there's people talking about interest in buying your brand. Do you want us to open conversation? And then it turned into six brands putting in kind of feelers, which led to four putting in offers, which led to...

Competing offers. Beautiful. And a great lesson here again. Always have competing offers. Competing offers will force the sell rate substantially. And I don't know if this can happen. Actually, this can happen in the beer industry as well. You can add recurring revenue to it, like the beer of the month, beer of the week, whatever club.

You can raise your revenues, selling revenues by anywhere from three to four more X. We've done that in several of the companies that we've exited. Holy hell. So what are you doing now? So that's where like the retirement. So when you look at like my plan, right? My, and actually Josh was a really big component in putting together my plan. We didn't think the company is going to sell that quick.

When we started pitching it to investors, we thought it was going to be between seven and ten years. So my original plan was I was going to skate and then step away from skating, move the family down to San Diego and do it full time with Josh, right? The company sold before we were even close to even thinking it would, and I still had like a full skate career going, right? Social media took over. I ended up building this pretty big brand on social media. And then it was like, wait a minute, that was my plan.

Shit, now what? right and and the hardest thing for me was like I didn't know I didn't know what was going to be I spent so much time planning for the financial side and even after the sell right we got acquisition I still had to figure out what to do with the money put the money back real estate was really the driving force for me right but I didn't know what I was going to do after the the fear of me not being able to make money maybe went away but I had found something that I was so passionate about and enjoyed so much that my fear was I wasn't going to find something that that I enjoyed much, right? Right. Short of skating. Short of skating, yeah. So I didn't know at that point

until I got that call and then it was like my world got flipped upside down. Hey, ain't that something though? Like while you're working on this perfect plan with the family and with the business partners, never happens. Like while you're working on the perfect plan, the ideal plan that's going to happen that might seem not ideal in the moment, like whether it's a surgery and a phone call that says peace out, you're no longer an athlete, right? We're not sponsoring you anymore. Or you guys were think in a seven to 10 year run before you even entertain the idea of selling yeah yet you know within four years of idea yeah you guys have sold and exited and peace out yeah and so i want everyone listening and watching this particular episode to understand that speed of implementation never

burning bridges having a long run rate and when you make an idea when things don't work out with how you think your idea is supposed to be that's okay there's a better plan forming for you You just haven't seen it yet, and that's really what happened here for you. Yeah. And so now you've got this real estate fund. Yeah. You've got massive influence on social media. What is it that you're doing now and how or who is it impacting?

So when I got that phone call, right? Yeah. And I had been planning for the financial side. I didn't plan for the emotional side at all, right? The emotional, did this thing hit me? This was the hardest. It was probably the hardest six months of my entire life was after that phone call. It was incredibly hard.

And this is the phone call where you're laid up recovering. You're no longer a pro skater. Yeah. We found the claws piece. Yeah. And even though I knew it was coming, right? It was brutal. It was brutal, absolutely brutal.

And so during that six months, dude, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. And I was playing around everything to do an shoe company. We were going to do a learning brand. There were a couple. It was just, I couldn't figure out what it was, right? But nothing felt like skating. Nothing felt like, oh, that's for me. This is what I should do, right?

And I was really struggling with figuring out what my next kind of thing was going to be. And I got a call from another pro skateboarder. And, you know, we're all so scared about what happens after skating. So I get a call from him. He's like, yo, like, well, are you? Are you okay? It's like skateboard purgatory is what I imagine, especially before the internet where you didn't know where these guys went. Oh, yeah.

It's just like skateboarder purgatory where they're just floating around somewhere. Yeah, we're all so scared of it, right? So I get a call from me. He's like, dude, are you okay? Like, what's up? And I'm like, you know, going, this is brutal. I don't know what I should do. I don't know who I ain't, right?

This whole thing. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Like, are you good, though? Like, and he was asking, what he was really asking is financially, am I okay, right? Married, two kids. Are you okay? Right. And I was like, kind of told him, like, yeah.

Like, thankfully, thankfully, I'm okay on that side. It's all this other stuff, right? And he's just like, dude, forget about that. Like, can you believe you're in this situation? Like, I hope I'm in that situation. That's amazing, right? So after that phone call, I hung up, I sit down, and I kind of feel guilt. Right.

I'm like, why am I like one of the 3% that's able to do this and no one else can? And I wasn't even the best skateboarder, right? I was by far not the best skateboarder, didn't have the biggest following, whatever. Why am I able to do this? Right. And it really went down this kind of rabbit hole of like, what did I do to put me in this position, right? And how can I help as many other skaters, surfers, all my friends so that they go through this like I did, which was already the hardest thing I've ever done, right?

I couldn't imagine having to go through the financial side and go, holy shit, how am I going to make money tomorrow? Right? I can't even imagine that. So it was really that thought process of how can I fix this industry and really like start helping these kids plan and get through it. And when I look back, it was really real estate being the vehicle that really allowed me to do it. Even after like the St. Archers and everything else, it was still I had to put money to work. Right. And so that's what led to the idea of I'm going to try and create something to help these guys.

And real estate being the one started creating this idea. company brought it to the three guys who I'd been investing in all this time. Yeah. And then we ended up creating Commune Capital, which is the new fund. It's not specific to skaters. We do have, you know, I have lawyers and you know, CFOs and entrepreneurs, but but I really want to try and help the skaters and surfers. So we do have a lot of athletes as well. Good for you. Yeah. And so you've got a real estate fund. What's it called again? It's called Commune Capital. Commune Capital. And who's overseeing that fund?

So I have basically three partners, so it's four of us are managing principles of the fund. One being Randy, who's the CFP. And this is their, so their office, they created funds prior to this one, right? And a lot of the real estate I was investing into was through them. So one of my partners is a CFP, another is a CFP, one's a CFA, and then myself. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Did you ever think you'd be sitting with two financial planners and a financial advisor?

No, I had a conversation with Eric on the right over. here, right? We're looking at this. So you roll in with a t-shirt, hat flipped backwards. How did they roll in? Oh, they're suits. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Weird to having this conversation on the way here, we're looking at a pretty big deal right now. And like Eric's like, dude, can you believe like this is what you're doing? You're looking at deals like that. Would you have ever thought this when you're 18? And it's like, dude, honestly, no, I would have never imagined this. And what's even more surprising is like, I love it. Like, I found that thing that is like, my days go by so fast. And my days go by so fast. that I'm going, how can I not go through Monday to Friday this quick, right?

Like, it's been amazing. So I feel very thankful to have something that I'm just enjoying so much. Would you say, I'm not going to put words in your mouth. Would you say you're an athlete or an entrepreneur? I would say I'm an entrepreneur who just ended up skateboarding. Because even like looking back at my career, I think I was successful not because of my talent. I really don't think I was that talented at all. And like I was able to make more than, I'd say, 90% of people that were better than me.

me. I grew a following bigger than 90% of people that are bigger than me. Like, it wasn't the skill for me. It really wasn't. It was your grind, your hustle, the fact that you picked up the phone and made the calls, sent out the VHS tapes. Yeah. Right? What lessons do you have for young entrepreneurs that are in that incubation? They have an idea. Maybe they're afraid to take the leap of faith. What advice would you give a young entrepreneur? The thing that I've always done, and I don't know if it was, I don't know if it was just me and my personality, but I, I always just do it. Like I'm a big believer of just jumping in and kind of now going through this, you're always going to have problems no matter what. If it's going good or bad, there's problems.

Your idea and path and plan, it's never what it's supposed to be. It's always kind of derails into other things and you're forced having to figure out new solutions to these problems, right? So for me, it's like just jump in and solve the problems because there's going to be no scenario where there's no problems. Right. And so that's always been me. It's just like, just go for Mike, before we wrap up, how can anyone, I got two questions. One, first question is how can our friends find you, follow you, hear from you, connect with you? I think the best place is probably Instagram. It's just Mikey Taylor.

I try to respond to DMs as much as I can. It's starting to get tough. Yeah, it's starting to get tough. Other than that, LinkedIn, but Instagram is probably the best one. Instagram, gotcha. And final question, what should I have asked you that I didn't? Oh, man. I was impressed by all the questions you asked.

Like, God, I'm really going to have to give him a good interview, man. I think you got it all. Well, good. Hey, thank you so much for being on our show. We really appreciate you. And friends watching and listening to this, again, go follow Mikey Taylor on Instagram. He's someone who's the real deal in the trenches, entrepreneur through and through. Even when he thought he was a skater, he was an entrepreneur.

And we saw the breadcrumbs line up where he turned that into a loaf of bread at the end of the story here. And, of course, there's more to come with Mikey as he's only. 36 years old, and there's several more decades of success to come. So thank you for watching the Empire Podcast Show. I'm Badros Kulian. We'll see you later. Bye. Hey, thanks so much for being here for today's Empire Podcast Show. We would love for you to do a quick little favor for us. Just go to iTunes and give us a five-star rating. Leave a comment, share it with your friends. And if you're interested in growing your business faster, go to bedroskulian.com forward slash empire. Fill out the application to see if you're a good fit

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